1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to HVAC zone climate control systems, and more specifically to a zone climate control system for room-by-room climate control in a residential building.
2. Background Art
The majority of single-family houses in the United States have forced air central heating systems. Many of these also have air conditioners that use the same air distribution system. These heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are typically controlled by a single, centrally located thermostat. The thermostat controls the HVAC equipment to maintain a constant temperature at the thermometer. The temperatures in other rooms of the house are not actively controlled, so the temperatures in different rooms can differ by many degrees from the temperature at the thermostat.
Manually adjusting the airflow to each room, by opening or closing louvers behind the vents, is the primary method available to control the temperature away from the thermostat. However, the temperatures away from the thermostat depend on many dynamic factors such as the season (heating or cooling), the outside temperature, radiation heating and cooling through windows, and the activities of people and equipment in the rooms. The desired temperature also depends on the activity of the occupant, for example lower temperatures for sleeping and higher temperatures for relaxing. Maintaining comfortable temperatures requires constant adjustment, or may not be possible.
These temperature control problems are well known to HVAC suppliers, installers, and house occupants. Zone control systems have been developed to improve temperature control. Typically, a small number of thermostats are located in different areas of the house, and a small number of mechanized airflow dampers are placed in the air distribution ducts. A control unit dynamically controls the HVAC equipment and the airflow to simultaneously control the temperatures at each thermostat. These conventional systems are difficult to retrofit, and provide limited function and benefit. They are provided by several companies such as: Honeywell, 101 Columbia Road, Morristown, N.J. 07962; Carrier, One Carrier Place, Farmington, Conn. 06034; Jackson Systems, LLC100 E. Thompson Rd., Indianapolis, Ind. 46227; Arzel Zoning Technology, Inc., 4801 Commerce Parkway, Cleveland, Ohio 44128; Duro Dyne, 81 Spence Street, Bay Shore, N.Y. 11706; and EWC Controls, Inc., 385 Highway 33, Englishtown, N.J. 07726.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,501 issued Jun. 30, 1998 to Merry, et al. describes a system for selectively circulating unconditioned air for a predetermined time to provide fresh air. The system uses conventional airflow control devices installed in the air ducts and the system does not use temperature difference to control circulation. This system is difficult to retrofit and does not exploit selective circulation to equalize temperatures
U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,265 issued Jun. 18, 1991 to Buchholz, et al. describes a zone control system with conventional thermostats located in each zone. This system teaches one method for distributing conditioned air to zones based dependent on the zone that has the greatest need for conditioning. However, the thermostats make on-off requests for conditioning based on local set points, so the system must deduce need based on the duty cycle of on-off requests. The control system does not have access to the actual temperature in the zone nor any other characteristic of the zone such as thermal resistance or thermal capacity. This system is not practically adaptable to a residential system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,232 issued Sep. 7, 1999 to Parlante describes a method for measuring the relative energy used by each unit of many units served by a single furnace based on the accumulated time each unit draws energy. The method prorates the total based on time and does not account for different rates of energy use by each unit. The method requires individual timers for each unit and a method for communicating times to a central location. The method does not provide accurate results when each unit draws energy at different rates from the common source, and is not adaptable to a residential zone controlled forced air HVAC system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,883 issued Feb. 26, 2002 to Simmons, et al. describes a control system for a set of zones that draw energy from a common supply. The system claims to save energy using occupant sensors and parameters entered locally in each zone to request conditioning only when the zone is occupied. The system does not have a centralized way to specify and control the zones as groups or as an entire house, and the system is not practical for residential retrofit or use.